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By Joe Buscaglia

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Eric Wood closing in on full return for Bills

by Joe Buscaglia,posted Jul 29 2012 4:12PM

As Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood has been attempting to make his way back from a torn ACL, the team has been very cautious with how much they put him through. With a few days of practice in the rearview mirror, the starter is inching his way back to being a full-participant.

"I'm excited. It's not a good feeling watching all your teammates practice," Wood said. "Just going through individual then not actually getting to do the fun part of practice, the team drills. I'm absolutely excited to get back, but in the same sense I'm trying to be cautious and trying to be patient. But, yeah, definitely getting a little anxious about it."

Head coach Chan Gailey declared during the first week of practice that they would likely wait to put the center in team drills until after the first one-day break, which just so happens to be on Monday.

So is the knee getting close to the 100-percent marker? Wood confirmed that.

"Yeah, and I may be 100-percent right now," he remarked. "It feels great in the individual drills but it would have been dumb for me to come back in Day 1, and go right back in to team drills when all those coaches know what I can offer them. It wouldn't have been smart to get my feet wet, knock some of the rust off it before I head back in to team drills."

In his absence, starting right guard Kraig Urbik has been shifting over to center, and also reserve lineman Colin Brown has been taking some snaps with the first team.

The Bills practice Sunday night, then don't have another official practice until Tuesday afternoon.